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Kevin Burke

@burke.bsky.social
1.1K followers 175 following 2.7K posts

Ask me about the Contra Costa County Housing Element

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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
California Prop 38: - authorizes $4B spending in a way that only one research center in the whole state qualifies - privately funded research center - founder of the research center has donated $22 million to support the ballot prop This is, like, pure corruption calmatters.org/politics/ele...
calmatters.org
Is this proposition a $4 billion giveaway to a billionaire’s LA research center?
Proposition 38 will award $4 billion to one unnamed research center. Under the very specific criteria, only one center seemingly qualifies.
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sjd93.bsky.social @sjd93.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I have 2 interchange *repavings* that have been stuck in CalTrans design processes for 7 years.
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
"So whenever you are awarded federal money, you have to go through Caltrans.... so we're not able to actually design the project until Caltrans gives us the design money." "Just like with the design, we cannot bid the project until we receive funding from Caltrans" www.youtube.com/watch?v=u58q...
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Backwardation was named after John Backwardation
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
@mgm.ink my question is why they are stopping at 32 pickleball courts. www.sfchronicle.com/eastbay/arti...
sfchronicle.com
Massive pickleball court complex proposed for unexpected Bay Area site
The Alameda County Fairgrounds has long been a home for 4-H kids and the region’s agricultural traditions. Could it also become one of the Bay Area’s biggest destinations for pickleball?
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
at this rate P != NP has gotta be provable within the next year or two right?
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
It's really crazy that HCD tries to do sites inventory analysis without a CoStar subscription (which all of the relevant cities have). forget law or policy changes "Analysts can retrieve information about leases" should be among the top priorities for next cycle.
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The Onion @theonion.com · 03/09/2026
Google Maps Introduces Crawling Directions For Cyclists Hit By Truck theonion.com/google-maps-introduces…
Google Maps Introduces Crawling Directions For Cyclists Hit By Truck
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
If police take a blood draw AFTER you have been transported to a hospital and THEN "questioned for hours" and the blood draw shows a "near zero alcohol level" I do not think this is the vindication that she thinks it is calmatters.org/investigatio...
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
In California you can drive on the roads with only $60,000 of insurance coverage per accident. In Europe coverage requirements start in the low millions.
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
The scene in Shawshank Redemption where Andy writes a letter a week asking for funds for the library and then they finally say "here are your books, stop writing us" is a pretty accurate description of successful public policy advocacy.
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Mexico should have painted this on the field just to mess with England
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
Closing the door reduces noise but worsens air circulation/temp control. There are code solutions for this - doors are supposed to have a gap at the bottom for airflow, or a louver above the door. But these are rarely implemented correctly and expensive to fix
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
I wrote about why new apartments in Walnut Creek offer a pretty low living standard and why it's impossible to build a 3 bedroom apartment with a playground here. kevin.burke.dev/kevin/walnut...
kevin.burke.dev
Why Can’t Walnut Creek Build 3 Bedroom Apartments with a Playground? | Kevin Burke
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Most parents understand they shouldn't let their 12 year old drive a car but I guess haven't quite learned the same lesson when it comes to letting a 12 year old ride a 60mph top speed motorcycle. www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...
sfchronicle.com
Danville 12-year-old nabbed after allegedly fleeing police on electric motorcycle
Danville police stopped a 12-year-old boy for reckless driving after he allegedly sped through a residential neighborhood on an electric motorcycle and attempted to flee from officers.
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Hello, is this thing on? Here's a site I made to make it easier to track public meetings. Automatic transcripts and agenda parsing. Please take a look, tell me if it's useful, and what meetings I should add public-meetings.burke.services
public-meetings.burke.services
Public Meetings
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Gemini Dream is the best Moody Blues song
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California Housing Defense Fund @housingdefense.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
HAA letter to Walnut Creek, CA for tonight's Design Review Commission meeting re proposed 422-unit builder's remedy project at 2775–2855 Mitchell Drive, which includes 55 low-income units. @agrobbonta.oag.ca.gov @california-hcd.bsky.social drive.google.com/file/d/1JnUm...
drive.google.com
Walnut Creek - 2775–2855 Mitchell Drive - HAA Letter.pdf
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Not sure what case exists for banning transgender surgery for minors that doesn’t also exist for banning plastic surgery for minors, maybe you could argue it’s less reversible? More cosmetic?
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Good morning, a good day to read about the history of the multifamily building code in the US and how little of it related to safety www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
tandfonline.com
The National Movement to Halt the Spread of Multifamily Housing, 1890-1926
Efforts to prohibit apartments, rather than merely regulate their construction and condition, began in the 1890s. Through the early 1920s, major cities used stringent building codes to achieve this...
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Larkspur, Warm Springs and Sac Valley transportation planners
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Jeff Lazarus @jlazarus.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Not an original point but worth saying again - there is not a single element in this picture that identifies any of these folks as law enforcement agents. No badges, no uniforms, no vests. Out of context it just looks like a bunch of random guys are kidnapping a mayoral candidate.
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Many home insurers are using the same valuation tool to price California insurance. We should increase competition so more competitors enter who might try different software or different valuation models. www.sfchronicle.com/california-w...
sfchronicle.com
State Farm accused of ‘illegal scheme’ that left California wildfire survivors underinsured
Attorneys for Los Angeles wildfire survivors allege that the insurance company misused reconstruction cost estimation programs to lowball home rebuild costs.
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
It’s 1.3 acres of park space Michael, how much could it cost to renovate it?
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Counterpoint to recent @annielowrey.bsky.social piece is mini-Cuomo Sophie Hahn gets elected Berkeley mayor without RCV
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Which member of @cacommonground.bsky.social is depicted in this episode?
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
@eean.dev silence on this issue is deafening www.danvillesanramon.com/pleasanton/2...
danvillesanramon.com
County supes to review objections for proposed Castlewood assessment
Leaders of the Castlewood Property Owners Association submitted 189 written objections to the county public works department’s proposed supplemental water service charge of $6,829.27 per household Thu...
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Micah @rincewind.run · 16/06/2025
this is a fantastic ruling but it's deeply depressing that the clearest-eyed condemnation of this administration's actions has come from the judges tasked with ruling on their legality and not the press ostensibly tasked with speaking truth to power
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
The status quo exists in California because elected officials think it's good localnewsmatters.org/2025/06/15/s...
localnewsmatters.org
San Jose City Council blocks West San Jose housing project after homeowner outcry - Local News Matters
CITY OFFICIALS HAVE SIDED with homeowners opposed to a proposed 17-story apartment complex that would have added hundreds of homes in West San Jose. The
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
Finally the perfect podcast for my daily commute from Reno to the SF Peninsula.
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
If only - Dean Preston’s staff replied to this data by saying that a plurality of public comments on the MTA budget were asking for lower fares (after Preston had posted on Twitter that people should write in and ask for lower fares.)
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
Argument in this paper is that 2/3 of the gap between men's and women's wages can be explained by preference for non-salary "amenities" - things like a regular schedule or a safer job papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
Filling out my beach boys brian Wilson apology form
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Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
The president of the United States in our time is not supposed to wield armed troops and even station marines on American soil because of political speech and assembly he doesn’t like, that is typically not allowed and no I don’t care if any of it is technically “legal”
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
Walnut Creek is spending $690k next year to add sidewalks on one of these four sections of San Miguel Drive. Guess which one.
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Jeff Baker @jwbee.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Every school district in my area is cold-calling parents in other cities to get them to switch districts. It is a demographic certainty that without massive housing construction these districts are all shrinking.
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Max Read @maxread.info · 12/06/2025
if youre attacked by a roving gang of 40 year old men show them this poster as a distraction... will buy you at least an hour to escape
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Hardly the main point but most shocking thing to me was the airbag failing to deploy, that’s not new technology that’s just the car failing a basic decades old safety test www.bloomberg.com/features/202...
bloomberg.com
A Fatal Tesla Crash Shows the Limits of Full Self-Driving
As Elon Musk touts robotaxis in Austin, federal regulators are investigating whether Tesla’s system is dangerous even with a human behind the wheel.
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
One very counterintuitive thing is that suicide is a very impulsive act, you can actually reduce the number of suicides by making it harder to commit suicide. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/10/h...
nytimes.com
A Killer Within Easy Reach
Pesticides are a leading means of suicide. The tiny nation of Suriname is working to restrict access to one of the most common and dangerous ones.
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
As someone who has been trying to expand housing supply in the suburbs for some time now I am available for comment on the Glaeser and Gyourko paper x.com/TahraHoops/s...
x.com
Tahra Hoops on X: "There is a great new paper out by Ed Glaeser & Joseph Gyourko: The housing supply problem isn't just expensive coastal cities anymore, the "suburban frontier" is also closing. Tl;dr "Insiders increasingly use regulations to protect their own rents and keep outsiders out."🧵 https://t.co/j2ZhfbEl91" / X
There is a great new paper out by Ed Glaeser & Joseph Gyourko: The housing supply problem isn't just expensive coastal cities anymore, the "suburban frontier" is also closing. Tl;dr "Insiders increasingly use regulations to protect their own rents and keep outsiders out."🧵 https://t.co/j2ZhfbEl91
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
For context, the downtown SF stations are 54 feet below ground level, but two important constraints there - the tunnel needs to be deep enough to go under the Bay and also run Muni above. No similar constraints here (I guess good they are not staying 90 feet deep)
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Stephen Jacob Smith @stephenjacobsmith.com · 10/06/2025
NYC’s business and real estate leaders should have taken city politics seriously and gotten behind the candidate with the best policies, then maybe one of the moderate candidates would have a shot against Mamdani
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Nolan Hicks @ndhapple.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
"But the bridge lights were such a large expense — without a clear path to reimbursement — that they prevented the authority from issuing long term debt for years." -- www.politico.com/news/2025/06...
politico.com
Cuomo’s bridge lights hit the auction block
The state’s power authority spent more than $100 million for lights the former governor wanted on New York City’s bridges.
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
If you have a proprietary project that you don't want to allow anyone to use mark it as "UNLICENSED" in npm. If you want to dedicate software to the public domain and renounce your own interest in it mark it as "UNLICENSE" in npm.
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ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 09/06/2025
thing about Cuomo is his posturing as the "get stuff done" candidate is complete bullshit. he *sucks* at management. an overconfident, sloppy moron who constantly makes howlingly bad decisions bsky.app/profile/timm...
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
5 homes per acre on great infill site. Only $10m for the school district, $1m/acre. Fantastic
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
Few people have been more vindicated than the "30-50 feral hogs" guy
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Kevin Burke @burke.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
Name and logo combo goes hard
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snilttroll @snilttroll.bsky.social · 08/06/2025
apple should make it so all your family photos are automatically separated from photos of book pages and screenshots you’re saving to use against your enemies
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